e-commerce grew 45% in France

More and more French consumers looked to the internet to do their shopping in 2005, with sales totaling 2.9 bln euros (3.5 bln dollars) in 2005, a rise of 45% over the previous year, the Association for Online Commerce and Services (ACSEL) said Thursday.

The number of transactions rose by 47%, to 34.8 mln, in 2005, with Christmas providing a big boost to internet sales, as it had in 2004, ACSEL said in a report.

Citing figures published by the organization Mediatrie, ACSEL said there were 26.2 mln internet users in France at the end of 2005, 11% more than one year earlier, and that the number of internet purchasers had grown by 26%, to 13.4 mln.

This means, the group said, “more than half of all internet users made an online purchase at least once” last year.